Serana from Skyrim's Dawnguard DLC comes to mind.

~snort~

Your son maybe? But I want it to actually be thought out and written as good Obsidian did it ( I found Miraak to be underwelming, started off strong, ended up weak imo ). It's either a hit or miss depending how's it done, but as the main over arching story then probaly not. I personally love the idea of facing " yourselves " in literature and games, it questions your actions your making from a different perspective if done right and you get to overcome your inner " evil ". Do I want it in Fallout 4...depends how's it done.

Well, it only really works if you get to choose who your "Ulysses" is in FO4. I'd presume that Shaun only goes off the daddy issue deep end if you kept pushing at him trying to forge a father-son bond.

Of course he'll want to shoot you. He's now your senior by 150 years worth of experience, at least, and truly has nothing in common with you. You're basically a total stranger claiming to be the father he never remembers having. Drop it, he probably has no reason to keep going after you. Keep trying to force it, and it will end badly.

She's deeper than any other companion from Skyrim, not to mention any of the ones from Oblivion and FO3. She also compares well to those in NV, though it wasn't written by Beth. If she doesn't meet your standards, then what does? I'm guessing....Anders from DA2.

She has this in common with Cookie Monster.

Are we talking NPCs here or companions? Cuz I'll give you NPCs. Some anyway, the unimportant ones. Like Easy Pete and Sunny Smiles. Not like House or Benny tho because... yeah. Companions? Pre-Lonesome ED-E, Rex and Lilly, maybe, since I never dragged her along.

More of a Fenris guy myself. That broodiness yah know? And that barely restrained anger, especially when you rivalmance him. Hmmm-mmm. But yes, Anders as well as every other companion in both the DA and ME series. And many of the NPCs like Anora, Eamon, Celene, Briala, Flemeth, Dagna, Anderson, Udina, the Illusive Man, Aria, Howe, Bartrand and etc etc etc.

TBH I can't argue the finer points of Serana cuz all I remember about her is that she always whined about the weather and had mommy and daddy issues. Which is telling in and of itself.

If by Ulysses, you mean a foil for our character, then yes. And there should be more than one. I don't think we need a rival, but a foil is always good. I'd also like more characters that are anologous to the player. If they take inspiration for the characters in Dead Money, I wouldn't complain.

That's what his character was supposed to be, I thought - an insane man.

Many people, after undergoing a traumatic event, struggle with finding meaning or reason in what appears to be chaos. He can't accept the fact that what happened in the Divide, to his new home, was an accident. He's angry and bitter. He blames us for what happened; says that even if it was an accident, we need to be held accountable. He says that careless actions must be judged at the same standard of anything else. Yet, look at his past: he carelessly trained the White Legs who went on to destroy New Canaan, directed Elijah to the Sierra Madre who went on to trap visitors and commit heinous crimes, and encouraged the Think Tank to leave Big MT which would've resulted in a huge disaster. All of these messes are cleaned up by the player. His anger and bitterness; a cover for his hypocrisy.

You gather his holotapes and his confessions so that when you finally meet face to face, you call him out on all his [censored]. He thinks himself different than you, better than you, but he's not. He's just as guilty as you are.

He's your foil.

If they give us some sort of "rival" character, the ONE thing I hope they do is NOT like us talk to them.

The greatest folly a developer can make is to let you talk to the big bad in any sort of way, as, if you are allowed to, you will always find their logic to be flawed beyond all measure, and can always talk them down with logic a 5 year old could disprove.

This was the greatest problem with characters like Caesar, Lanius, and Ulysses, in NV. Talking to them turned them from these almost mythological beings of supreme charisma, and unrivaled intellect, into the same [censored] "wasteland warlord" cliches we have seen a thousand times.

Leaving the antagonist akin to a lovdecraftian deity, whose motives are unknown/unknowable, does so much more to build them up as credible threats them letting you talk to them ever does.

Even Alma from FEAR was a more credible threat then Ulysses because she was exactly that.... unapproachable, unassailable, she just existed, blew [censored] up, and seemingly nothing you could do could stop her.

Now this would be interesting as all get-out and legitimately tragic. Having a son who is a world away from you for all the years he's lived and the things he's seen? Yeah, I can see the old "your kid is evil" plot working out surprisingly well if it were something on this level (if not this exact plot).

It's proof that any trope can be interesting. (And that every once in a while, I do actually end up eating crow. Excuse me while I cough up some feathers.)

I can get that. He's my foil, he thinks making my character out to be some monster and him the selfless martyr will make everything OK. What I don't get is how Ulysses S. Grant is supposed to figure into all this. Was he trying to say that we're Robert E. Lee destroying his home and he's Grant, the guy who fought to restore it?

Ulysses S. Grant?

"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus" existed as a name far longer than the USA has existed.

He talked about a man who had to fight to make two nations one. I instantly thought of Ulysses S. Grant.

the Lone wanderer from 101 (that'd be a twist from hell)

They would have done a better job if they integrated Uselesses from the start. Have Boon or Ed-e or any of the companions occasionally react as if they see someone in the distance, have the Mysterious stranger perk when your outside put a sniper bullet in someones head or have random encounters triger that point you to a wiped out Legion/Ncr patrol or camp.(heck that one legion camp where you could free powdergangers have the legion there dead and then have the (Tramatized) powdergangers say "He said Tell (Gender) 6 Im looking for (Gender) or something.

Our son and wife could work if written correctly.

Dr Li.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeclarativeFinger

The divide wasn't Ulysses' home so that line of logic is flawed.

less Ulysses more like a Vaas from Far Cry 3 or Wez from Mad Max 2. Someone crazy and wild. Ulysses was just another obstacle not really our nemesis.

She'd be easy to calm down, if you can see through her Dragon Lady act.

Dinkleberg frozen for 200 years

Ulysses' character had the benefit of being shrouded in mystery and having a sub-narrative that foreshadowed a meeting between two couriers over a period of 3 (or 4) DLC. It's interesting since FNV had two stories being told, one main story and one sub story.

TBH, Ulysses wasn't all that great. He was flat, monotone (literally a generic, coarse voiced bad guy), and the events that spurred him into action were because of a courier that was ignorant of a package he was delivering, and that he blamed the courier for destroying the home he almost had.

For perspective, this is like me waging an invisible war against UPS because they delivered a package bomb to my house. Brilliant.